Chapter 2: So Poor

A silver-gray three-door refrigerator stood there, covered in colorful magnets.

It was her refrigerator!

It had actually followed her here!

Back in the modern world, she had been a food content creator, and this fridge was her daily-use fridge—packed full of goodies.

In the refrigerator compartment were drinks like Coke, Sprite, and Fanta; alcoholic beverages like fruit wine and rice wine.

There were also all kinds of condiments: oyster sauce, rock sugar, MSG, light soy sauce, thirteen-spice blend, Korean doenjang, kimchi, sweet chili sauce, Sichuan chili oil, and so on.

In the produce and fresh-keeping section, since she shopped once a week, it was stocked with fresh leafy greens, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, peppers, eggs, and more, all still wonderfully fresh.

The fruit compartment held watermelon, pomegranates, cherries, jujubes, sugar mandarins, Hami melon, bananas, peaches… all kinds.

This hoarding habit gave her a sense of security—she always felt safer when the fridge was packed full.

The freezer section was even more extravagant. Being passionate about food, she had ordered premium ingredients online.

Kobe beef, Australian wagyu, pork belly, Xinjiang lamb chops, free-range mountain chicken—all portioned neatly into servings.

There were also Boston lobsters, sweet shrimp, sea urchin, caviar, frozen squid, tuna, hairtail fish, and other seafood and Japanese delicacies.

Steaks, pork chops, dumplings, noodles, tangyuan, wontons, frozen flatbreads, sausages, bacon—every kind of frozen ready-to-cook food stuffed inside.

From Costco, she had even bought a bucket-sized tub of ice cream, along with frozen blueberries, butter, and more.

She used to always buy and stuff things in without ever really organizing it.

Now, as she mentally took stock of everything inside, just the sight of each item filled her with happiness.

With all this, at least she wouldn’t starve to death!

She could even go back to her old trade—maybe open a restaurant!

Joy and relief flooded her heart.

It felt like falling into a cesspit, only to suddenly spot a lump of gold glinting there—utter surprise!

She reached behind her back, wanting to test if she could take food out of the fridge.

But the things she touched were shrouded in gray mist—she couldn’t pull them out at all.

What the heck?

Panic began to rise inside her.

【You have transmigrated. Do you wish to bind the refrigerator?】

Bind the refrigerator?

Of course she had to!

【Bind! Bind! I want to bind it!】

Lin Yue shouted in her heart, unable to wait.

【Binding complete.
Refrigerator unlocked. Please choose any one item from inside to take with you.】

Unlocked?

Choose something?

Lin Yue was baffled.

But thinking it must be some kind of system, she decided she would figure it out later.

Right now, she was hungry, starving, absolutely famished!

She had to pick something to eat right away!

If she were alone, she would have immediately chosen one of the premium cuts of meat from the freezer.

But with her brother- and sister-in-law’s children here, she couldn’t expose her secret yet.

Besides, in this ancient world, firewood was scarce and hard to burn.

Once she started cooking, the smoke and delicious aroma would spread everywhere—wouldn’t that expose her instantly?

After some thought, Lin Yue chose something simple and ready to eat:

A bag of steamed buns from the fridge’s fresh section.

She had bought them just that morning but hadn’t had the chance to eat before stuffing them inside.

They were from her favorite old-town shop she’d bought from since childhood. Unlike other shops that used low-quality cuts like lymph meat, she could tell this place only used freshly butchered pork shoulder each day.

Even the flour was premium quality.

A little pricier, yes, but the flavor was unbeatable.

Thin skin, generous filling, and big in size.

One bite into the chewy wrapper revealed tender, juicy pork, rich with fresh aroma.

The burst of broth soaked into the snow-white bun skin, glistening with golden droplets.

Gulp.

Just thinking about it, Lin Yue swallowed hard several times.

Let alone now, in this starving body—she felt she could even bite straight into a raw cow!

“I’ll go organize the house. You take care of your brother,” Lin Yue said, tossing the words over as she quickly moved to a secluded spot to figure out how to retrieve the buns from the bag.

She walked into the kitchen, focused her mind, and four meat buns appeared in her hands.

Lin Yue hurriedly took the buns out of the plastic bag.

The kitchen fire had already gone out long ago.

Anyway, it was summer. She could just let the buns warm in the air and eat them directly.

If she didn’t eat soon, she’d probably pass out.

Ignoring everything else, she shoved a meat bun into her mouth.

Though the bun was a little cold, biting into it released the salty, tender pork, and the solidified meat juices melted in her mouth.

Meat and dough—a mixture of sugar, oil, protein, and carbs—entered her body like water to parched land finally meeting a spring.

No matter how humanity advanced over thousands of years, the taste buds always craved this.

One bite, and it felt heavenly.

Besides, this body probably hadn’t eaten in days, let alone fatty, flavorful food!

Before, Lin Yue had just thought of meat buns with nostalgia;

Now, they were like an unparalleled delicacy, a treasure from heaven and earth.

Compared to the rancid, hard cornbread from earlier, this was something else entirely.

She felt so happy she wanted to cry.

She quickly and reluctantly swallowed the bun, and her body finally regained a little strength, no longer so dizzy.

She stared at the remaining buns on the plate and thought she could eat all three.

No!

Her remaining sense of reason warned her—they had to run after daybreak.

Her siblings were so weak; if she didn’t give them food, they’d collapse after a few steps.

As for abandoning them…

After the original owner was bought, Gu Cai, and even the younger siblings, had treated her fairly well.

After Gu Cai left, the original owner stayed at home doing nothing, and her siblings brought food to her.

Moreover, the younger brother had just risked himself to drive off Yellow Teeth, getting beaten for it.

Abandoning them now would be cruel.

Besides, this era was unstable.

A lone woman wandering outside was even more vulnerable.

It was far safer to take her brother and sister and seek refuge with relatives.

As for turning to the original owner’s family?

They would probably be sold again by that same greedy uncle.

Once she had made up her mind, Lin Yue forced herself to look away from the meat buns.

Wait—was the plastic bag still in her hands?

Looking at this obviously non-ancient item, she hesitated.

Throwing it away felt like such a waste.

Keeping it, she wasn’t sure what to do with it.

If only she could put it back…

As she thought this, the plastic bag suddenly disappeared.

Wide-eyed, Lin Yue immediately noticed the bag outside the fridge.

Outside the fridge?

It could store items?

Lin Yue immediately picked up a sugar jar.

“Store.”

“Store it!”

She repeated the thought three times, but nothing happened.

“Take out the plastic bag.” Just as she thought this, the bag returned to her hands.

“Store it.” The moment she thought it, the bag went back inside.

It seemed this space could only store items from the fridge.

Lin Yue looked around and realized the house had almost nothing.

No water jars, only a bucket half-filled with water, a broken vegetable basket with a few rotting leaves, and a small bag of rice in the rice container.

On the table, a small jar of salt and a small jar of sugar.

That was it!!!

Looking at the tiny jar of sugar, Lin Yue took the only broken bowl she had and scraped the sugar into it.

She made a bowl of sugar water.

“Sister-in-law,” Dog Egg’s hand appeared at the doorway, peeking in, his face anxious and frightened. “Little sister passed out.”